It was deadly dull to me. Even the winners were boring, while being technically good. There was no excitement to the performances. There was no rising to the occasion with their best, except perhaps with Lysacek's lp. The winners did enough to win certainly, but I have no desire to rewatch them for the enjoyment value. I can find better performances by all the winners in other competitions. I rewatch performances from other Olympics all the time, but this one won't be replayed often.

Added: I want to make it clear. I am not just talking about the Russians. It was a general bore.

Yes, there were many falls in Dance but one can't say that this was not a strong field. It was a VERY great, strong field, even aftr the sad pull-out of the Canadians.

Men - super strong group. Listen to Button's comments on this field once again! Just because there was one overwhelming superstar among them doesn't make the other 9 guys in the eventual top-ten 'weak'!

Pairs - strong, strong teams, even with the Zhangs' fall. My only problem is with Zhangs' final placement, as I had the two other Chinese pairs above them. [Zhangs deserved 4th, IMO.]

I liked most of what I saw, because I already factor for Olympic nerves, and I was glad I didn't have to agonize through another Kwan LP. "Back in the day," I don't think there were a greater percentage of fantastic programs that were televised, especially in the days of school figures, when many of the best free skaters weren't even shown, unless they were from the broadcast country.

I found the winning performances to be very inspiring, considering the kind of pressure these skaters handled and delivered solid performances. I also found some of the non-winning performances quite inspiring.

Although I felt the right people won in every event, I would disagree that the winning performances in men's and dance, and maybe even ladies, were "inspiring". I love Shizuka, and was thrilled with her clean performance and win, but 2004 Dortmund was "inspiring"....Olys was getting done what she needed to do. Navka and Kostamarov seemed to be less than themselves in both CD and OD, only showing their spark in the FD. And Plushenko won with his most boring and uninspired free program performance in five or six years, IMO.

I agree. Shizuka's performance, while good and well enough to win that night, wasn't all that.

Her Ina Bauer was pretty much the best ever. Carrying it into a 3Sal/2Toe/2Loop is simply iconic.

Shizuka really was wonderful. She displayed the flexibility of Cohen, the jumping height of Slutskaya, and the grace of Kwan. As an overall package, at this moment in time, she is the best female skater ever.

I wasn't jumping out of my seat at first either but after watching her skate again (and again and again....), the performance is a work of art.

Sasha's performance was excellent as well because her falls worked with the music. They set up a kind of tragedy and considering she was skating to Romeo and Juliet, you really got the feeling of "wow, love can overcome anything" by the time she got done skating. Notice how the commentators (for both American and European coverage) don't say a word after the first two minutes - they are enthralled. Beautiful.

Sasha's performance was excellent as well because her falls worked with the music. They set up a kind of tragedy and considering she was skating to Romeo and Juliet, you really got the feeling of "wow, love can overcome anything" by the time she got done skating. Notice how the commentators (for both American and European coverage) don't say a word after the first two minutes - they are enthralled. Beautiful.

I thought this Olys was the worst in several years, but I prefer it when the medalists are "good [bronze]; better [silver] best [gold]" in most or all disciplines, instead of one or more medals decided by "who was least bad". For example in the ladies and men's event in '98that Lipinski and Kulik had the skates of their lives doesn't alter the fact that the silver and bronze medalists also skated well; in '06, the OGMs in the mens and the ladies were clean, but not the skate of their lives -- and most of the remaining medalists weren't even clean.